Post-millennial mathemagicians Child Abuse simultaneously confuse and stimulate audiences with their unique fusion of progressive-rock, jazz, and metal. The group's sound can be likened to listening to Eric Dolpy's Out There while smoking speed and being sodomized by Captain Beefheart. And while the music is intricate when performed live, Child Abuse make it all seem like child's play. Drummer Oran Canfield's deadpan style anchors the spastic contortions of bassist Tim Dahl and keyboardist/vocalist Luke Calzonetti.

Canfield and Calzonetti migrated from San Francisco to Brooklyn, New York, taking the name Child Abuse with them. Once in Brooklyn the duo added Dahl, who has solidified the group's reign of aural terror.

Unfortunately this interview had to happen by email, and it took the article's holiday-depressed writer weeks to get it live, but here is the interview in all its glory and brevity.

Do you condone the abuse of children?

Tim: Only if there's something in it for me.

Luke: Absolutely not. Boring answer, I know... but who does condone abusing children?

Oran: No

Would you consider your music an appropriate soundtrack during the abuse of children, whether you condone the act or not?

Tim: Not really. I think Radiohead would be better. Actually no... Vampire Weekend.

Luke: Hmm good question... .I think the most perverse soundtrack would have to be something from the bel canto tradition something light and airy maybe a piece from a Verdi opera.

Oran: I don't think it's appropriate to abuse children to any music.

Is Child Abuse the next level of fusion music?

Tim: I sure hope so. Otherwise all of those years studying Eric Marienthal, Frank Gambale, and Eberhard Weber would be out the door.

Luke: I don't know if its 'next level' fusion, and it could be a step down honestly. I'm thinking something more like idiot-savant fusion, or severely impaired fusion, but I sure as shit can't play as well as Chick Corea, or Mahavishnu-era Jan Hammer. I like to think of myself as the bastard child of both- someone who was locked in a dungeon and left to his own devices. That said, I still think I have more soul than Jordan Rudess.

Oran: Yes. I think if Weather Report were still together, they would sound like us.

What musical elements are funneled into your sound?

Tim: All that we know of, and some that we don't. We're maximalists.

Luke: Tons, everything. I really love the baroque period- the balance- the constant bass figures. And even some of the piano miniatures of Schumann, or Schubert. Messian's organ works are exciting. Also dudes like Mort Garson, Raymond Scott, and most of the early electronic guys are influences. But I also enjoy the 'classics' such as Man is the Bastard, G.I.S.M., and Siege.

Oran: A bit of everything. So much so, that it's probably hard to tell exactly what we are taking from. I personally think of it as mostly stemming from the lineage of Monk, Dolphy, and Beefheart, just a hell of a lot louder.

Are all lyrics improvised, and if so are there particular lines that seem to repeatedly seep in during performances?

Luke: Most of the lyrics are improvised, and sometimes when I am not thinking I come out with things in French, or some line off the top of my head. There is a "lyric" sheet floating around that you can order from us... if you want.

Child Abuse was once a bassless project - has adding this additional instrument changed the sound?

Tim: Sure, although Luke's timbre, and my timbre are not radically different considering I play bas,s and he plays synth. We both play within a large range, we both love clusters, we both use ring modulators, and distortion etc. A lot of times people can't tell who is doing what. Even at live shows when they are looking at us. Of course I am not speaking for everyone.

Luke: Oh definitely. Tim has brought a sense of composition, and depth that we didn't have before. There's tons of cross frequencies going on, and I think that contributes to the "what the fuck-ness" of the music.

Oran: It's bassier.

Please give a run down of your current releases, and what we can expect in the near future.

Tim:Zum just released a split we did with Zs. For the most part we are writing our new album. Hope to be in the studio in a couple of months. I am very excited about this album. On our first album about half of the songs were written as a trio, and the other half were older material that I wrote bass parts for. I think the new material captures our trio sound and represents what the group has become over the last two years.

Luke: A new album is in the works, along with a collaboration with Australian artist Tony Garifalakis.

Would you recommend Child Abuses' music for intimate moments such as love making?

Tim: I don't think so. Child Abuse is definitely not background music. To enjoy it, you have to listen to it. If you are listening to it, you are not concentrating on the fucking.

Luke: I wouldn't personally. Although we are all extremely sexy individuals, I would not call child abuse a sexy band.

Oran: No. I think it's more appropriate for masturbation.

Have any of the bands members ever listened to Child Abuse while making love?

Tim: Classified info.

Luke: I wouldn't subject my girlfriend to such a deranged soundtrack. I prefer SILENCE.

Oran: I have not. Nor would I want to.

Can you please explain the history behind the name Child Abuse?

Luke: there is a lot of history to the name actually. There was a band from LA in 1979 called Child Abuse that morphed into The Simpletons who were on Posh Boy Records. Then there was this NJ hardcore band called Child Abuse from 82. We are continuing on with the tradition. Personally, it describes the music pretty well, and I wanted something kind of generic sounding and vague. Eric Bauer actually came up with the name. It's also very confrontational, much like our music.

President-elect Obama was voted into office on the promise of hope, and change to America. What promises can Child Abuse make to the American people?

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.

I'm not sure how many people are lucky enough to have The San Francisco Giants 3 World Series trophies put on display at their work for the company's employees to enjoy during their lunch break, but that's what happened the other day at Deluxe. So great.

When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.

Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it? --continue reading

"[Satire] is important because it brings out the flaws we all have and throws them up on the screen of another person," said Turner. “How they react sort of shows how important that really is.” Later, he added, "Charlie took a hit for everybody." -read on

NYC --- A new graffiti abatement program put forth by the police commissioner has beat cops carrying cans of spray paint to fill in and cover graffiti artists work in an effort to clean up the city --> Many cops are thinking it's a waste of resources, but we're waiting to see someone make a project of it. Maybe instructions for the cops on where to fill-in?

The NYPD is arming its cops with cans of spray paint and giving them art-class-style lessons to tackle the scourge of urban graffiti, The Post has learned.

Shootings are on the rise across the city, but the directive from Police Headquarters is to hunt down street art and cover it with black, red and white spray paint, sources said... READ ON

SAN FRANCISCO --- The Headlands Center for the Arts is preparing for their largest fundraiser of the year set to go down on June 4th at SOMArts here in the city. Art auction, food, drinks, live music, etc and all for helping to support a great institution up in the Marin Headlands. ~details

ABOUT HEADLANDSHeadlands Center for the Arts provides an unparalleled environment for the creative process and the development of new work and ideas. Through a range of programs for artists and the public, we offer opportunities for reflection, dialogue, and exchange that build understanding and appreciation for the role of art in society.

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.

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